Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Predictors
In Ted Chiang's What's Expected of Us, he describes a device he calls a Predictor that has a negative time delay, namely it sends the signal back in time. No matter how hard the user tries, it can never fool the predictor. Chiang warns his audience that predictors demonstrate that there is no such thing as free will. His message to us is to pretend to have free will because believing to have free will is the most important thing. He tells of how people are then predetermined to fall into akinetic mutism, having no personal choice. Obviously predictors do not exist, but if they did, do you believe they demonstrate there is no free will? Chiang goes on to say civilization depends on self-deception. Do agree that society would depend on self-deception according to this story?
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Larson, Predictors do not exist, but what Chiang's narrator tells us, in the story, about the lack of scientific proof for free will, and the considerable scientific proof that there is NO free will, is true. There are many responses to this, most falling into two broad categories: "We do so have free will, I just know it!" "The question is irrelevant." Both of which are arguably versions of, "I'd rather not think about that today."
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